Synopsis

Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo – a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer and the beasts. Here, he meets Montgomery’s master, the sinister Dr. Moreau – a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments in vivisection have caused him to abandon the civilised world. It soon becomes clear he has been developing these experiments – with truly horrific results. (Source: Amazon)

Wells’ Island of Horrors!

Revolutionising the science fiction genre, H. G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau mixes horror and scientific ethics.

The story follows Edward Prendick. The sole survivor of a shipwreck, his rescue by Montgomery and his strange cargo lead to his life being turned upside down. With no way back to Britain, Prendick ends up becoming Montgomery’s guest on the isolated Pacific island where he works. Inhabited by strange creatures and filled with the sound of pained screams, Prendick soon discovers that Montgomery’s employer, the mysterious Dr. Moreau, has ambitions that lie well beyond normal scientific interest.

Primarily a horror story, Well’s exploration into a world filled with vicious animals, mad scientists, and vivisection makes for an interesting read. Despite being well over 100 years old, the tension and mystery of the story haven’t missed a beat. In particular, Well’s imagery of body horror strikes as a standout. There’s something inherently visceral to the author’s description of a puma’s pained scream and how it changes with each of Doctor Moreau’s different procedures.

While these horror aspects of the story are strong, what truly makes it a classic comes from the themes that Wells weaves throughout. Despite being a relatively short book, there’s no shortage of meat to sink your teeth into. Prominently on display in the novel are the themes of scientific ethics and genetic engineering, as well as the trope of the mad scientist.

The theme of scientific ethics and the trope of the mad scientist go hand in hand with each other. Despite the mad scientist trope being played out at this point, Wells’ version in Doctor Moreau is certainly a memorable one. His cold and calculating demeanour helps to get across the conflict between where the interests of science end and where the act of butchery begins. As Prendick meets Moreau, he’s well past the point of no return, and regardless of his developments in the creation of a new species, his acts of vivisection amount to little more than torture under a different guise.

As for the theme of genetic engineering, Wells was ahead of his time on this one. While vivisection may be an extremely crude beginning to genetic engineering, the conflicts it creates still hold true today. As CRISPR and other DNA-modifying technologies get closer to eradicating human imperfections, the conversations surrounding whether it is right to play God, much in the way Moreau was with the animals he experimented on, bring extra relevancy to the series and go to show how revolutionary Wells’s thinking was even back during the Victorian era.

Overall, The Island of Doctor Moreau is as much a moral tale as it is a horror story. Besides the interesting mystery and copious amounts of tension, there’s a conversation to be had over scientific ethics and the role it still plays in the subject today.

I Give The Island of Doctor Moreau: 8/10